Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Shipments Halted Due To Fire Hazard Reports

It’s not like we haven’t seen this before but it doesn’t make it any less horrifying. There are multiple reports of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 catching fire. This is supposed to be the best phone in the world right now; an iPhone killer. Instead it has turned out to be a fire hazard. And now Samsung has halted shipments of the Note 7, most likely due to this issue.

“Shipments of the Galaxy Note 7 are being delayed due to additional tests being conducted for product quality.”

-Samsung’s Statement to Reuters

Samsung has already shipped half a million units so the phablet is already a hit. That’s not surprising since it had racked up 400,000 pre-orders since its launch. However, due to a charging related issue, two of the phablets have burnt and died. Apparently the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 accumulates a lot of heat when charged with a non-issued cable. This leads to the fire/explosion. Both users that have reported the fire hazard have used a third party cable to charge the phone. The first user posted a picture of phablet on the Chinese forum, Baidu. In the picture was a third part micro USB to USB type-C adapter cable. The second report was from Business Korea where someone cited their friend’s Note bursting in to flames because of a non-Samsung charger.

The burns are consistently to the left of the phone in all the pictures indicating that it’s a case of exploding batteries.

Picture posted on Baidu

Another report has surfaced from the US and six in total around the world. Whatever the case maybe, it shouldn’t be burning up. Paying top dollar for the most feature packed phone in the world should give you some return on investment like lasting out your warranty at the very least. Just to be safe though, stop using any third party cables to charge up your Note 7.

Shipments to three of South Korea’s main mobile carriers have been halted and Samsung’s market value has taken a tumble worth $7 billion. It’s shares tumbled 2%. It’s a huge issue so close to the launch of the iPhone 7 next week. Samsung had cemented its reputation this year as the smartphone king with the release of the S7 and S7 Edge but these problems with the Note 7, it’s best phone, is making cracks appear.

Other issues are also being reported with the phone on forums like bricking, bootlooping and crashing while running apps. Running the device on Safe Mode, using Recovery and even deleting the cache doesn’t work. For a phone with the latest specs, a finger print reader, an iris scanner and 4 GB of RAM that’s incredibly poor. Though it seems that only the phablets with the Exynos chipset are having this issue.

Reports of exploding smartphones and tablets have been continuously surfacing year by year. The iPhone 4, the Galaxy S2, the Droid Bionic, the Nexus S, the Galaxy S3 and the Motorola Droid 2 have all exploded in the past some times seriously injuring their owners. Is it too much to ask for a non explosive phone?